Honda Solar Hydrogen Station Introduced to Green Car Market
Honda finally unveiled their new solar hydrogen solar station and all signs point to a dramatic success. The station is smaller than previous models and enables an electric car owner to refill their fuel cell overnight. The unit should easily fit into a homeowners’ garage taking up significantly less space than previous models. The older model required a compressor and electrolyzer for it to be operational. One of the reasons the units were so big was because of the compressor that was required to run the unit. Not only that, the compressor was also the reason that the units were so expensive to produce and purchase.
Honda has totally changed the components of the unit and eliminated the need for the compressor and this new slim model is the result. The unit is also “smart grid friendly” and will not require any hydrogen storage for the fuel cell to recharge. Because of this, the Honda Solar Hydrogen Station will lower CO2 emissions even further and allow the car owner to use off peak electricity to recharge the car. This makes everything more cost effective all the way around.
The Honda Solar Hydrogen Station is built to recharge the car on an overnight 8-hour fill. The power that was replenished would typically power the car for a full day of average driving. In most cases, that single fill will be able to get just about anyone through their day and back home without having to worry about a recharge.
However, the design of this new station also has talked of setting up an actual string of charging stations that would enable someone to travel much longer distances. The station was built with fast fill capabilities and any car that has this technology would be able to benefit from the public charging stations.
The Honda FCX is just such a car and can travel 240 miles on a single fill and has the capability to do a fast fill in about five minutes. This dramatically increases the travel range of a car and if the traveler was able to find a location that would allow the car to have a slow 8-hour overnight fill, there would literally be no limitation to the distance that the car could travel.
Honda is continuing its development of this concept and the coast to coast fueling stations will likely become a reality before long. It is a matter of getting investors onboard to support the stations and then there is no telling what will happen.
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February 26th, 2010
Excellent innovation indeed! The refilling station is sleek and compact.
A good acheivement by an auto major.
February 26th, 2010
Absolutely. I am inspired and dismayed this news is blocked from mainstream media by oil power. It does not surprise me that Ford Motor Company is not on the cutting edge, but Honda is involved in robotics, and alternative fields. Tunnel-vision partnering with big oil is costing American stock values to decline, and i pray we integrate these new concepts soon enough to reverse our carbon footprint on Earth.
February 26th, 2010
It’s a brilliant concept and I’m glad to see the fueling time has been/could be greatly reduced. But it still has an electrolyzer which means a directed electric current to split the water molecules. Which means, unfortunately, an extra step is in place where it needn’t be. A straight electric charger would have been better. And then there’s the question of how much solar is actually utilized to create the electrolyzer charge, since the unit is grid-connected. Can the solar installation involved actually create enough juice to zap the water, or does it require involvement from the grid?
Like I said, a brilliant concept and a step in the right direction, but needs refinement and should not be considered an end-product. I’m looking forward to what comes down the line.
February 27th, 2010
A good place for them would be hotels. Good for hotel business too.
March 15th, 2010
Mass conversion to alternative fuel sources cannot happen until there is decent network coverage and the most innovative companies are busy trying to stay ahead of the game and putting this in place now. This is a great technological development and when these are available readily in places people automatically stop for downtime – car parks, office blocks etc. then there’s a chance that average consumers might sit up and take a bit more notice. New companies will cease this opportunity fast if traditional energy suppliers and car manufacturers do not up the ante.